24 Aug Throwing Shade in an Eclipse, The Facts Behind the “False Hype” at Baa Baa

Throwing Shade in an Eclipse, The Facts Behind the “False Hype” at Baa Baa

The beer was great, and so was the experience, but apparently everybody didn’t think so?

The beers I have had were OK, nothing spectacular. The service I received was sub par. Event coordination was confusing and a complete let down for people that actually showed up early. Went for the Eclipse release and it was a very frustrating experience to say the least.

This was the shot heard around the (Houston beer) world.

August 20, 2017.

5:00pm

Baa Baa Brewhouse in Brookshire, Texas

It was a scorcher outside as 80+ folks fanned themselves, waiting in line and gripping their tickets closely. Baa Baa Brewhouse released their sixth or seventh IPA since they started with Houston’s first NEIPA, Cow Jumped over the Moon. Along with getting a 6 pack of Eclipse, the first 30 patrons were given a ticket for an Eclipse Teku glass.

Baa Baa built the hype a little bit on their Facebook page, just as they have in the past.

Their post read, “We are ready for Eclipse… glasses available for purchase on Sunday – August 20th @ 5pm”

Accompanied by this pic of the Baa Baa Eclipse Teku Glass (and some juicy looking beer).

But somehow it went awry. They were accused of building false hype and misleading people. If you’ve ever been to Baa Baa and met Marcus and Kinga, you’re already reading in disbelief, as that’s uncharacteristic of them – unbelievably so.

Speaking of unbelievable, let’s stop for just a minute. One guy said the beer was just OK.

*Face palm* The credibility is waning quickly here, but back to the story.

So what made these people so pissed?

Baa Baa, frantic at the turnout, tried their best to make the most of it for as many people as they could and they were accused of creating false hype, as if they’re trying to scam people or get over somehow.

Kinga shared this with us,

We prepared 6 packs because at Meenie release there was about 50 ppl. So we thought that instead of 8 cans everyone will get 6 and we will extend the number of cans to more people. We ended up cutting 4 packs out of 6 packs.

When the turnout for Eclipse was almost 2x bigger than they had anticipated, they decided it’d be wise for everybody that got beer to leave with 2 less cans, so that less people would leave empty handed. It sort of sucks, but when you’re talking about really good beer like this, I think it’s fair to say that we should be grateful to have any, especially considering Baa Baa’s a 3BBL nano brewery.

I’m totally guessing here, but I wonder if the issue isn’t that Baa Baa has ok beer and bad service? Maybe it’s that they have terrific beer and people got pissed because they couldn’t get more of it. (Sounds like a good problem for Baa Baa, but that’s none of my business 🐸 ☕) The accusations sound a bit unreasonable at the end of the day.

Kinga had this to say about the accusations,

People are saying we created false hype and did not tell people how many cans we have. But we did exactly the same thing as we did with all the other releases. There was nothing changed as far advertising goes. We advertised that it is very limited availability on FB page and website. Those who know our brewing capacity know that can release are tiny. The people who complained are the ones who were there for the first time. We did not create false hype. There was nothing false in anything we were doing.

But the grievance wasn’t just really even about the beer. At the end of the day, people were most upset that they couldn’t get a glass because Baa Baa only had 30 to sell.

A printed Teku like this is going to run roughly $10 per unit on a small order, plus setup fees for the screening, plus shipping costs.

They ordered 48 glasses. 18 were sold to Breakfast Club members who came the day before, as their membership grants them exclusive access to things like this, leaving 30 for the release. That’s over $500 in glassware. That may be chump change for a bigger brewery, but again, Baa Baa’s self-funded with 3BBL capacity. While they’ll probably make their money back on the glasses, that’s a good little chunk to take out of operation costs to brew the beer that keeps the lights on.

Of the 30 Baa Baa Eclipse Teku glasses for sale, only 29 could be sold because one was chipped.

Kinga went on to say,

Many people are so unhappy because they did not get the glass where they do not understand that we just simply cannot afford purchase so many glassware.

There is just the 2 of us working all the aspects of the business. This includes beer production, kegging and other packaging, deliveries, accounting, marketing, website, social media, event coordination all the office related and legal aspects of brewery business, emails, hops and yeast orders and grain pick up, tap room service and janitorial tasks.

If you know Kinga at all, you totally just read that in her charming Polish accent.

But um, back to the lecture at hand…

Baa Baa’s making as much beer as they can to keep us all satisfied. Believe me, if they could brew more, they would. (And so would probably every other brewery in town. Ask them.) And they’d have plenty of glass to go around.

As I was writing this post, my genuine intention was to share how small Baa Baa really is and to help tame the expectations. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t losing it, so I checked with the team. Here’s what I got:

Chris – This sounds unreasonable. If you’ve ever been to Baa Baa you know they’re small. You can’t expect them to buy extras so everyone gets one. All this glassware sells out elsewhere and no one says a word. But Baa Baa is expected to have enough for everyone?

Nick – If anybody is crying about glassware selling out at Baa Baa then they are being unreasonable. They can probably trade for it or purchase one off somebody if they want it that bad.

Sam -Totally agree with Chris and Nick. I’m sure it will blow over and people will get out to the brewery earlier if they really want their stuff. If not, more for us!

(See, y’all? Sam might just be the smartest in the bunch. Agree with the others and get more beer. Bingo ✔️)

The moral of the story here is, Baa Baa’s small. Real small. Chill out. Or don’t, whatever. We’ll drink up all the hops. They tried their best to make it right with anybody airing grievances and didn’t even get a reply.

Kinga closed with this,

We are humbled by the growing support but at the same time it hurts us when people who have no idea how this brewery is run and bash us on social media. We get it. It is business. We can't please everyone. But we are only doing what all the other breweries are doing except it is on much smaller scale. Is this really the reason to bash us? Because we are small and we can't fulfill demand? We are 3bbl brewery and those customers who have been at the brewery know that. We are producing as much as we can. We do have lots to learn. We will learn but that will come with time.

Ennie’s gone, Meenie’s gone, Miney’s on the way, and we’re not gonna let a stupid glass stop us from enjoying it. How bout y’all? Let us know in the comments below, and for the love of all the good Houston beer, share this post with somebody to keep all panties unbunched.

Beers to you, Houston! 🍻